Those of us who have been here longer than Vitalik rocking a milady PFP know all about Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), which eventually gave birth to liquid staking.
Through liquid staking, users maintain their liquidity while simultaneously earning staking rewards on the ETH staked with validators who performed several functions within the network, including being responsible for the network’s security.
Validators that act in bad faith (delays in attestation or downtime, signing two blocks at the same slot) get some of their staked tokens taken away (slashed), which is one deterrent security measure.
Furthermore, validators' staking tokens curb network hijacks. To compromise Ethereum, an attacker would need to control 51% of all staked ETH. The more ETH locked up by validators, the higher the cost of an attack, effectively pricing bad actors out of the game.
Now, while Ethereum’s shift to PoS improved energy efficiency and network security for the mainnet, scalability issues still linger.
Transactions remain pricey, and block space remains limited. That’s why Ethereum needs layer-2s (L2s), and these L2s need a robust security architecture.
This is where it gets interesting. L2s need to bootstrap their own Active Validation Service (AVS) with a staking model right from the start, a necessity that’s capital-intensive and, for new entrants, a security headache.
Remember the whole 51% attack problem? If an L2 launches without enough staked tokens securing it, attackers have a much lower financial barrier to taking over the network. Until they attract enough validators and economic weight, they’re in a vulnerable position.
Based on this premise, the concept of restaking exists — to provide shared security without forcing every L2 to reinvent the wheel.
Restaking’s potential and the barriers holding it back
Restaking is a shared security model that allows staked assets (in this case, ETH) used to secure a network to be extended, thereby securing multiple networks or applications.
These new networks, through restaking, inherit security from a pretty strong base layer, allowing them to be a lot more decentralized in practice (as opposed to starting out with a small validator set) and capital efficient (same stake but multiple layers of use).
Additionally, restaking opens up more yield opportunities for stakers without having to deploy extra capital.
However, despite unlocking Ethereum’s security for external networks and all of these other juicy benefits, restaking adoption has pretty much stalled. Why?
The most obvious reason why restaking is facing adoption issues is that projects want shared security without the complexity of setting up validators or having to attract stakers from scratch.
I mean, can you blame them? The cost of bootstrapping network security, especially for small networks, is high. If they decide to do it all by themselves, the tradeoff is decentralization for centralization risks — the network is exposed to attacks thanks to small validator sets.
The solution? Networks or devs need to worry less about these complexities. They need a different approach to restaking that alleviates these pain points such that they can focus on what matters — building and developing an economically viable environment on their networks to attract users.
Thankfully, this is what the Tanssi model is all about. We already gave you the complete guide, so we recommend checking that out first. But today, our focus turns to Tanssi as an enabler of the restaking model.
Tanssi as a staking enabler
Tanssi is a modular network infrastructure protocol that allows developers to launch fully customizable decentralized networks (AVS included) in minutes, not months.
Tanssi achieves this by handling the hard bits of bootstrapping a network, such as block production, data availability, providing RPC endpoints and block explorers, organizing for wallet integrations, and other infrastructural services. The goal is to reduce the complexities associated with developing a decentralized L2 from scratch.
You can think of it as Shopify for L2s or WIX for decentralized networks or blockchains. They do all the hard work behind the scenes and give L2s a simple way to launch.
However, on the issue of network security, Tanssi is designed to provide its clients (networks) with shared security through a structured partnership with restocking providers such as Symbiotic.
Tanssi-Symbiotic bromance: How it works
Symbiotic Network is a permissionless restaking protocol that enables multi-asset, network-agnostic restaking. It allows stakers to extend their staked assets to secure multiple networks and provide additional validation services.
The protocol consists of several key participants:
- Restakers: Deposit staked ETH into the protocol vaults, where it is restaked and used for security and other purposes.
- Curators: Manage the vaults where restakers deposit their assets. They configure deposits and withdrawals, selecting assets the vault accepts as valid collateral. Curators are also responsible for determining how restaked assets are delegated across operators and networks.
- Resolvers: Oversee dispute resolution and determine penalties for defaulting participants, leading to slashing events executed on the vaults.
The recurring theme among these three participants is vaults.
Vaults are an important component of the Symbiotic Network. They manage deposits by restakers and are responsible for reward distribution to both restakers and operators.
On the other hand, operators run the nodes and perform vital validation services. Vault curators reserve the right to select the operators they wish to work with.
All of these moving parts function with Tanssi in the middle, acting as the bridge between the symbiotic restaking protocol and decentralized networks, linking L2s to shared security through symbiotic restakers while also connecting those restakers to multiple networks built using the Tanssi stack.
The vault managers or curators apply to Tanssi-powered networks, offering restaked collateral to their choice Tanssi network.
Benefits of the Tanssi model
Tanssi’s full-stack approach to empowering developers with all the requirements to build a decentralized and secure AVS, contributes to the growth of restaking across the board.
The idea is simple: Tanssi eliminates the complexity of integrating restaking by offering ready-to-use infrastructure, validator coordination, and automated security through the Symbiotic Network.
The difference between using Tanssi and going without it is stark. Without Tanssi, teams must manually recruit validators, bootstrap staking, and build their own infrastructure.
With Tanssi, the process becomes nearly plug-and-play. L2s built with Tanssi’s tooling gain access to block production services, data availability, a decentralized network from day one, and shared security at an industry-standard level.
Symbiotic, through its vaults and operators, validates and secures Tanssi-powered networks, assessing and opting in to support the protocol. This removes the burden of infrastructure and security from developers — challenges that are not only costly and time-consuming but also prone to systemic risks.
By leveraging restaking protocols, Tanssi extends security across multiple networks, accelerating the adoption of restaking as a whole.
Symbiotic, through its vaults and operators, validates and secures Tanssi-powered networks, analyzing and opting in to support the protocol, thereby alleviating developers from dealing with the infrastructural and security bits that will be costly, time-consuming, and exposed to systemic risks.
Through restaking protocols, Tanssi extends security to a wide suite of networks, supporting high-performance applications such as AI, Gamefi, RWAs, and beyond — catalyzing restaking adoption.
Tanssi enables launching with ETH-backed security today, but the goal is much bigger — making network launches easier across ecosystems.
Concluding thoughts
As general-purpose L2s fade into obscurity, turning into ghost towns, and L1s continue to grapple with challenges that put their applications at risk, one thing is clear: appchains and purpose-built networks are here to stay.
Given this trajectory, it's only a matter of time before an interconnected ecosystem of L2s takes shape. Tanssi is positioned at this pivotal moment, equipping developers with the tools to build not just quickly but securely, ensuring that scalability and safety go hand in hand.
Additionally, this entire architecture is designed with the Tanssi token at its core, rewarding operators who act in good faith while also incentivizing restakers. This deep integration reinforces the token’s utility across multiple layers of the ecosystem.
The only real question for anyone paying attention is: how do you position yourself?
Right now, the Tanssi testnet offers users the chance to launch networks in minutes, making it the perfect time to experiment. And for those looking to get in early, the Let’s Forking Dance initiative is still active, providing incentives for the earliest adopters.
